Last week I saw the movie Creed at Cornell Cinema, which told the story of Adonis Creed, son of the fictional legendary boxer Apollo Creed. Usually I don’t enjoy sports movies, but I really liked Creed and I was impressed by the visual artistry in the movie. The two images that stuck out to me the most was when he was running through the streets of Philadelphia with the neighborhood boys riding their motorcycles behind him. There was a real sense of community there that Adonis had never previously felt and it was a heartwarming scene. The other image was during his fight with “Pretty” Ricky where they repeatedly showed every hit, cut and bruise of the fight. Seeing the blood and spit spurt out of their mouths on a loop was difficult to stomach. While it was a gruesome scene, I was impressed by how they made it so the audience was part of that very intimate environment and how they made it so that the audience could gain no pleasure from the fight. The more the scene dragged on, the more I wanted the fight to be over. I think the visual impact was a huge part of the movie and I appreciated the artistry behind it. However, there were some aspects of the story that were not dealt with which made the ending a bit lacking. The story begins with a young Adonis fighting with another child in a juvenile detention center. Throughout the story, he is described as always itching for a fight and it seems that this is just a hereditary trait, a part of his father that lived within him. However, his anger issues come up outside of the ring as well. When in emotional distress after he learns that Rocky has cancer, Adonis gets into an unnecessary fight at his girlfriend’s show and attacks one of her opening artists. While this violent outburst is attributed to said emotional distress and that was the end of that arc in the story. I felt that there were still issues of hypermasculinity and anger that could have been further unpacked and I would have liked to see that depth in Adonis’s character. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to others but there were some missed opportunities in the characterization of Adonis.